I've owned every iPhone (yes, every model) and have loved each one of them except for the original model because it wasn't 3G. I've also owned every iPad and currently have the iPad 2 (wife) and iPad 4 (mine) and absolutely love them both.

However, I've had the itch to try Android (phone only, not tablet) mostly because of the larger screen size and for the open system allowing lots of different applications, etc.

I've purchased the HTC One and used it over the weekend and here are my first impressions based off 48 hours of using the device.

Phone (hardware)

+ 4.7" 1080p screen is beautiful. The size is GREAT and is really the killer feature. The quality of the screen also rivals or beats the iPhone 5.

+ Speakers are incredible. The best I've ever heard from a phone.

+ Build quality is similar to iPhone. It feels fantastic.

- Power button is almost flush with the phone and very difficult to press.

- No dedicated silent/vibrate switch

- Capacitive buttons (home and back) are OK but I'd rather physical buttons.

- No menu button so a lot of applications display a large horizontal "menu button" taking up a large portion of the screen.

Software (Android 4.2.1)

+ Tons of "low-level" settings and information

Enable/disable specific Bluetooth profiles

Detailed battery statistics

Detailed cpu statistics, usage, etc.

+ Custom launchers are really interesting and useful.

+ Tons of neat software like emulators, tethering applications, etc. All of this forbidden in iOS.

+ File browser and multiple applications can share/open one copy of a file!

++ Swype keyboard is GREAT.

-- Multitasking is confusing. Sometimes "backing" out of an application will close it and other times it will stay open indefinitely (?) [example: Skype]

The biggest problem/concern I'm having right now is applications. Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:

Browser (Chrome and built-in HTC Sense browser) - It's fast but not quite as fast as Safari on iOS. The scrolling isn't as smooth but it's very close and most people probably wouldn't care. It also handles things like videos embedded in websites differently than Safari so they don't play automatically, etc. This isn't a big deal but just different than what I'm used to.

Skype - I was talking with my mom last night and it crashed three times.

Games - Everything I've tried doesn't run very good or not as good as the iPhone 5. I've read that developers need to optimize the apps for the new hardware (s600 cpu) but that's one of the problems with Android I think.

Music - iTunes is really nice for music.

I'm not biased towards either phone or operating system but I think so far I slightly prefer iOS but I wish they would make a bigger phone.

However, I'm going to keep using the Android and see what happens in the next few days...

If you long-press power, at least on a Nexus device, you get a menu that lets you toggle from silent to noisy easily. It's not a hardware button, but it's quicker than fiddling with settings if that's where you've been going.

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[*]+ Tons of neat software like emulators, tethering applications, etc. All of this forbidden in iOS.[*]+ File browser and multiple applications can share/open one copy of a file!

These were two of the biggest reasons I went over. I was sick of not finding what I wanted in the Apple App Store, and I hit a point where the lack of a filesystem was very frustrating.

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[*]-- Multitasking is confusing. Sometimes "backing" out of an application will close it and other times it will stay open indefinitely (?) [example: Skype]

Yeah... agree there. It's certainly not consistent.

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[*]- User interface is all over-the-place. No consistency.

I haven't seen this as much in the "mainstream" apps, but the smaller ones definitely feel more like "Windows Shareware" than anything Apple has put out.

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Browser (Chrome and built-in HTC Sense browser) - It's fast but not quite as fast as Safari on iOS. The scrolling isn't as smooth but it's very close and most people probably wouldn't care. It also handles things like videos embedded in websites differently than Safari so they don't play automatically, etc. This isn't a big deal but just different than what I'm used to.

The Chrome Beta is usually better in performance, and being able to sync across devices is very nice.

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[*]Games - Everything I've tried doesn't run very good or not as good as the iPhone 5. I've read that developers need to optimize the apps for the new hardware (s600 cpu) but that's one of the problems with Android I think.

No idea. I don't game on my mobile devices. I read a lot.

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[*]Music - iTunes is really nice for music.

If you haven't uploaded your stuff to Play Music, it's really, really convenient and works very well with Android.

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I'm not biased towards either phone or operating system but I think so far I slightly prefer iOS but I wish they would make a bigger phone.

However, I'm going to keep using the Android and see what happens in the next few days...

My iPhone 4 feels /tiny/ after getting used to a Nexus 4, which isn't that huge of a phone. And as you get used to Android more, you realize it's pretty cool. Though Apple is still much better at micromanaging the battery life. Just get used to chargers.

You might want to consider giving Firefox a go. It has a bit of a terrible reputation on mobile courtesy of some truly dire early releases, but the current iteration works pretty well and has decent performance. I've taken to using it on my Nexus 7 these days and I really have no complaints about it.

I don’t know about Sense 5, but in previous versions HTC was very aggressive about closing background programs. They’ll show up in the multitasking list, but if you try opening one of those apps it’ll go through the whole opening process again, unless you were in it very recently. I personally like it – my One S gets far better battery life than my Nexus S did, with just 10% more milliamp-hours.

I’m probably going to replace my iPad2 with another iPad though. I game during my commute, and that’s one area in which app availability is a real problem on Android (especially with turn-based games). Some that exist on both platforms have poor performance on Android, as if they were hastily-written ports.

iOS is also far better at multilingual support, despite all the aftermarket keyboards Android has.

But Android can do things like communicate with your car’s OBD2 port (e.g. “Torque”), which is just awesome.

[*]-- Multitasking is confusing. Sometimes "backing" out of an application will close it and other times it will stay open indefinitely (?) [example: Skype]

Yeah... agree there. It's certainly not consistent.

I can't speak for how it is handled on the HTC One (I have a feeling that it isn't at all), but on the Nexus 4, there is actually a dedicated button for multitasking...Honestly, I haven't had a need to use the back button to exit an app since I got my Galaxy Nexus. Use the home button to get back to the main screen, or the multitasking button to switch apps. Stock Android has actually been really good about suspending apps in the background and allowing them to start as needed...

[*]-- Multitasking is confusing. Sometimes "backing" out of an application will close it and other times it will stay open indefinitely (?) [example: Skype]

Technically, hitting the back button shouldn't be closing any app on Android. It should just pause the foreground part of apps, while leaving any background processes running. Apps on Android can't really be closed by the user in most circumstances.

[*]- No menu button so a lot of applications display a large horizontal "menu button" taking up a large portion of the screen.[/list]

In the settings there should be an option to set long press one of the capacitive buttons as menu button. It is annoying that HTC went with two capacitive buttons instead of four.

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[*]-- Multitasking is confusing. Sometimes "backing" out of an application will close it and other times it will stay open indefinitely (?) [example: Skype]

This is a Sense issue rather than an Android issue. HTC is very aggressive about closing background applications in order to save battery life.

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[*]- User interface is all over-the-place. No consistency.

Again, it's a Sense issue.

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[list][*]Browser (Chrome and built-in HTC Sense browser) - It's fast but not quite as fast as Safari on iOS. The scrolling isn't as smooth but it's very close and most people probably wouldn't care. It also handles things like videos embedded in websites differently than Safari so they don't play automatically, etc. This isn't a big deal but just different than what I'm used to.[/*]

In my experience, Firefox is the most stable browser and Chrome Beta is the fastest. Opera is also good. Fortunately on Android you have plenty of choices.

In the settings there should be an option to set long press one of the capacitive buttons as menu button. It is annoying that HTC went with two capacitive buttons instead of four.

HTC dropped the ball on this one. They went from 4 to 3 last year with the OneX/EVO LTE and everyone blasted them for it. They were yelled at so much because of their stupid choice and their even worse 3-dot menu, that they eventually made it so you could hold down the multitasking button to get Menu back.

So what'd they do in 2013? After all that, their solution was to remove yet another button? They WANT to get kicked out of the Android market, it seems. A very poor, anti-usability choice they've made this time around.

HTC dropped the ball on this one. They went from 4 to 3 last year with the OneX/EVO LTE and everyone blasted them for it. They were yelled at so much because of their stupid choice and their even worse 3-dot menu, that they eventually made it so you could hold down the multitasking button to get Menu back.

So what'd they do in 2013? After all that, their solution was to remove yet another button? They WANT to get kicked out of the Android market, it seems. A very poor, anti-usability choice they've made this time around.

The menu button is being deprecated. Google is telling all of the devs to stop using the menu button in favor of an onscreen UI element.

Finally got our One in. The battery was drained so that was kinda of a bad first impression.

The menu button is being deprecated. Google is telling all of the devs to stop using the menu button in favor of an onscreen UI element.

Sure but every single Nexus phone has the multitasking onscreen button. Why on earth did Htc think that people will enjoy double tapping home to multitask?

It's like Apple!

I haven't figured out what "value" OEMs think they're adding to phones by messing up Android. It's like listening to Dell or HP prattle on about how "The Norton Trial adds value to our platform because... uh... well, anyway, we got paid to put it there. And Real Player. And Zynga Desktop Facebook Games for Windows. And about a million other things. Anyway, you're welcome. We did it because we thought of YOU first. Where YOU means OUR POCKETBOOK."

I haven't figured out what "value" OEMs think they're adding to phones by messing up Android.

There is some value. Sense has a better camera app than stock. I think their battery management is better, at least for my purposes (I can see how it’d be too much for some people). I find Nexus phones to have poor battery management and poor screen calibration, if any effort has been put into those two things at all. And the biggest one of all is that a lot of people don’t actually like minimalism in their UI, including unlabeled buttons, or they might not like the Holo theme.

But yeah, there are several aspects of Sense and other skins that are a mess. I like that they exist, but they needn’t go so far.

I wouldn't say that. Sense is fairly logical, and well-laid-out. There are some things about stock Android that third parties simply can't fix without breaking compatibility, like the complete mess that is the "back" button.

I haven't figured out what "value" OEMs think they're adding to phones by messing up Android. It's like listening to Dell or HP prattle on about how "The Norton Trial adds value to our platform because... uh... well, anyway, we got paid to put it there. And Real Player. And Zynga Desktop Facebook Games for Windows. And about a million other things. Anyway, you're welcome. We did it because we thought of YOU first. Where YOU means OUR POCKETBOOK."

You need to differentiate between carrier mandated bundles and OEM skins. The latter generally ensure a consistent aesthetic, and added functionality over stock. For people who don't have time to dig through boatloads of adware to find apps that suits their needs, that's added value.

I recently got to use an HTC One X as a trial and I pretty much agree with everything OP said. Here's my list of pet peeves with Android and all the Tier 1 phones...

1) phone was just TOO DAMN BIG. I just could not use it single handed without dropping it or having it slip from my grip multiple times.

2) capacitive OS keys are stupid. not only do they take up precious 'grip' area on the bottom of the device, if you happen to have one of your fingers on the keys, you CAN'T use the rest of the touchscreen (this might be a limitation of the HTC One X). Also, being capacitive buttons, they accidentally trigger way way way too often. Rotate the screen, accidentally hit back. switch hands, hit the app switcher. hand phone to someone else to show webpage, hit the home key (at which point the back button does NOT go back to the screen/app you were on. sigh...)

3) Even JB and Android apps are not as smooth nor polished as iOS equivalents. I use feedly on my iOS device (which began as an android app from what i understand) and I tried it on Android and it had very obvious bugs (crashing and swiping to next article often swiped through 2 articles, etc...)

4) I don't know how iOS does it, but I can hit a tiny text "next page" link in a fully zoomed out webpage in safari with my fat thumb, yet I cannot open the address bar in chrome without trying 4 or 5 times. bounding box accuracy is definitely not as good or too tight in android (maybe to compensate all screen sizes?)

Anyways, those are the big show stopper things for me. I had heard so many good things about JB so my expectations were high. I was disappointed.

But damn, I can totally understand the lure of the larger screens and why people are buying them. i immediately missed the large 4.7 IPA LCD going back to my iPhone 4S. But I just couldn't damn hold the thing... Granted my hands are on the smaller side...

My first two smart phones were Apple phones (3G and 3GS). Then I switched to Android with a Galaxy S3.

The GS3 basically smokes the iPhone.

1. Browsing is immensely faster, Chrome/FF either works well. 2. The greater size is a good thing...still fits in my pocket. 3. Not dealing with iTunes is awesome...I feel like I was let out of prison.4. Google Music basically allows me to use stream my entire library. No wasting local storage on music. 5. 4G + tethering is excellent. 6. Camera and video blow away anything on the iPhone.

I'm shocked - shocked! - that the Galaxy SIII is better than the iPhone3GS!

I can't get Google Music to install in Windows, so I'm dragging and dropping mp3s from iTunes into my phone through Windows Explorer. Whee. Gotta reformat one of these days anyway, but I didn't think that'd be a requirement for switching to Android.

I'm shocked - shocked! - that the Galaxy SIII is better than the iPhone3GS!

I can't get Google Music to install in Windows, so I'm dragging and dropping mp3s from iTunes into my phone through Windows Explorer. Whee. Gotta reformat one of these days anyway, but I didn't think that'd be a requirement for switching to Android.

My list is hardly comprehensive. Those are just the things that matter the most to me.

The actual list of the things that make it better than any iPhone is longer.

I'm shocked - shocked! - that the Galaxy SIII is better than the iPhone3GS!

I can't get Google Music to install in Windows, so I'm dragging and dropping mp3s from iTunes into my phone through Windows Explorer. Whee. Gotta reformat one of these days anyway, but I didn't think that'd be a requirement for switching to Android.

My list is hardly comprehensive. Those are just the things that matter the most to me.

The actual list of the things that make it better than any iPhone is longer.

Well the camera and video are certainly better on the iPhone 4S/5 than the GS3. So your list isn't very good.

My first two smart phones were Apple phones (3G and 3GS). Then I switched to Android with a Galaxy S3.

The GS3 basically smokes the iPhone.

1. Browsing is immensely faster, Chrome/FF either works well. 2. The greater size is a good thing...still fits in my pocket. 3. Not dealing with iTunes is awesome...I feel like I was let out of prison.4. Google Music basically allows me to use stream my entire library. No wasting local storage on music. 5. 4G + tethering is excellent. 6. Camera and video blow away anything on the iPhone.

A new a new PC with Windows 7 is faster than a old PC with Win XP home on it. What's your point?